


tell me something nice, like flowers and blue skies

by d_v_whelan



Series: the bitch of living [3]
Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, First Kiss, Photography, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 09:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20133181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d_v_whelan/pseuds/d_v_whelan
Summary: Martha finally decides to tell Anna how she feels... at least she tries to.





	tell me something nice, like flowers and blue skies

**Author's Note:**

> title is from 'i wanna be your girlfriend' by girl in red.
> 
> i didn't know how else to make it clear but niklas is one of anna's dads. she just calls them by their first names because that's who she is as a person.

They were laying in the grass in the backyard of Anna's house, neither of them bothered by the dew from that morning's rain wetting their clothes. Sure it might leave those streaky green stains, but Martha always wore dark colors, and Anna couldn't care less about stains, what with all of her shoes covered in Sharpie and all of her jeans ripped up anyway. 

As was routine for them when they had sleepovers, night owls so they were, the two of them stared up at the night sky. Their bodies were just feet apart, and the stars twinkled above them. Martha always liked to think about how hundreds of years ago, her ancestors stared up at those very same stars. It made her feel nostalgic, and that was one of her favorite feelings. 

Crickets chirped in the bushes, Anna's dogs barked inside the house, and the sprinklers in the front yard made their routine whirring noises. Martha pointed out constellations (and made up some, too), and Anna crafted stories to go along with them. They had always done this. They were best friends, after all.

A comfortable silence settled over them after Anna finished a tale about how Orion was actually a viking warrior. Martha dared to tilt her head sideways, and saw that thankfully, Anna was still looking at the sky. She admired her, unable to keep herself from smiling just at the sight of her slightly flushed face, her blonde hair splayed out over the grass, the little scar on the side of her cheek.

Martha had been crushing on Anna on and off (knowingly and unknowingly) since middle school, always unsure of her feelings and too reserved and cautious to say anything about them, especially whenever Anna had some new short-lived flame. The only person she had ever told was Ernst, and they didn't have too much time to talk about crushes anymore, considering he had now been dating _ his _crush for two months. Maybe that should have inspired Martha to have more courage, but really, it just made her kind of jealous.

There had been plenty of moments when Martha could've told her she was into her. Like at junior prom a few months before, when the girls had gone as a group and Martha and Anna found themselves alone at the table many times; or that time Wendla dragged everyone to the Museum of Natural History for a fun outing and Anna and Martha escaped to the taxidermy hall to get away from Thea; hell, at one of Max von Trenk's parties sophomore year they'd gotten stuck in a closet together for Seven Minutes in Heaven and all they did was laugh at how ridiculous it was. That seemed to be a theme with the two of them: always together, always alone, always at an opportune moment with nothing coming of it.

Anna was either oblivious or trying to gently let Martha know that she wasn't interested. Usually, Martha presumed it to be the latter, but she still held onto some hope; Ernst _had _ stressed about his Hanschen dilemma constantly and it ended splendidly.

Martha kept on staring at Anna, then turned back to the sky. 

In fact, that night would be perfect. Any night would be perfect, really. But only that night was happening _ right now._

She sat up. "Can I take a picture of you?"

Anna looked over, coming out of her stargazing daze, then giggled. "It's dark."

"I can make it work," Martha replied, scrambling to her feet to grab her camera off the porch.

"Why do you want to take a picture of me?" Anna asked, Martha helping her into a sitting position once she returned.

"Because—" Martha stopped herself, not wanting to say _ because I think you're beautiful_. _ Also I love you_. It was true, and it wasn't as if they hadn't called each other beautiful many times before, but Martha didn't think that was a very good answer at that moment. "Just because I feel like it."

Anna rolled her eyes playfully, her expression hardly visible under the light of the moon and the dim bulb on the back porch. "Okay, fine." 

It wasn't too strange of a request—Martha was a photographer, and worked for both the school newspaper and the yearbook committee. Of course, photos taken on her own time and of her friends outside of school hours hardly made the cut, but everyone knew that Martha took her camera _ everywhere_. If you went anywhere with Martha, you could expect dozens of candids—she could make anyone look good. Even Moritz sometimes didn't object to her pictures.

Martha kneeled in front of Anna, reaching out with a gentle hand to pose her. Normally, she would never touch someone she was taking a picture of; she would just tell them what to do out of courtesy for both of them. But Anna was different. (Everything was different with Anna.) 

"Oh! I forgot to tell you," Anna began, perking up slightly as Martha adjusted her shirt, "My dads are taking me with them to Florida in a few weeks. We're going to be touring the Kennedy Space Center and a bunch of other stuff. It's for Niklas's job, so we get to stay there for two weeks."

_ Oh, my God. She's leaving. For a total of two weeks. That's basically forever to me. Who am I supposed to hang out with? Wendla and by extension Thea? Gag me. _

"That's sick. I've always wanted to go there," Martha said with a wistful sigh. "The, uh, space center, I mean. Not Florida. Florida sounds like it sucks."

"It could be worse. It could be Alabama." The girls shared a laugh and Anna continued, "I'll bring something back for you. Something cool." 

"And send lots of pictures," Martha replied, smiling down at Anna as she moved to the porch to get the right angle.

"Sure, but they won't be as good as your pictures."

"They will, if they're selfies."

Anna said nothing, instead giving Martha an amused expression.

Martha winced and covered her face with her camera, looking through the viewfinder. _ Every time I try to say something cool out loud, I sound like a doofus, and God she would never date me. Jesus, I sound like Moritz. _

"Okay, just, uh, tilt your head—yeah, there you go. Look up a little…" Martha trailed off, staring at Anna's visage in the camera's lense. 

She didn't really care about taking her picture, she realized. She had enough pictures of Anna. She wanted to look at her—_really _ look at her. Martha lowered the camera.

"Um, Anna, I need to tell you something—"

"Come over here," Anna interrupted, patting the grass beside her.

Martha blinked, confused by the request. "Wh—okay." She set the camera down on the porch again and moved back to her seat on the ground near Anna. She was suddenly wishing that she had just taken the picture and been done with it, but no—she had to get all ballsy and try to confess her undying love. _ Or whatever. _

"I thought you wanted to tell me something?" Anna raised an eyebrow, making Martha's insides turn into the chrysalis of the world's most nervous butterfly.

"Never mind," Martha said quickly, adding a nervous laugh for good measure. "We should go back inside. It's kind of late."

Really, she wouldn't call herself shy or nervous or uncool or anything like that—not anything like Moritz or Ernst. In fact, she was significantly cooler than them, and even Hanschen liked her. But man, crushes made everything suck.

It was silent for a moment, Martha's suggestion being left to hang in the air. The two of them gazed wordlessly at each other, and Martha was about to change the subject again when Anna suddenly spoke up.

"Can I kiss you?"

_ Okay, this doesn't suck. _

"What?" was all Martha could say, looking down at her hand in the grass which was now covered with Anna's own.

"That's what you wanted to ask me, isn't it? If you could kiss me? Well, I wanted to ask you first." She was grinning.

That was certainly all or nothing. And well—the opposite of oblivious. Martha swallowed hard. "Please kiss me." _ Even though that wasn't what I was going to say, exactly, but you're better at this than I am. _

Anna took Martha's cheek in her other hand without another word or hesitation, drawing her close until their lips met. Anna had kissed people before, and so had Martha, but never anything like this. 

The dogs had stopped barking, the sprinklers had slowed, and all Martha could hear was the beating of her own heart and Anna's slowed breathing as the kiss went on and on. Martha tangled her fingers in Anna's blonde curls and Anna moved her hands to Martha's waist. Some time later Martha finally pulled away, and the two of them just stared at each other until Anna laughed and fell back into the grass.

Martha fell back too, laughing with her and holding her hand, feeling as if they were the only two people on Earth. Feeling like that was exactly what they were supposed to be doing, there, together.

Anna looked sideways at Martha, laughing again at her smeared lipgloss around Martha's mouth. "We'll have to do that a lot more before I leave for Florida. And when I get back."

There was a lot more to talk about, Martha knew, and she hadn't even gotten to say what she wanted to say—but for now, it could just be the two of them and the stars.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me @hanschhen on tumblr! + as always, comments/feedback is appreciated. + i know it's kind of rusty but i'm trying to get back into writing so here we are!


End file.
